Egypt: The Myth About Hippocrates And Other Interesting Facts

By Njideka Agbo
25 January 2018 |
7:20 am

Ancient Egypt is popularly known as the cradle of civilisation and it is rightly so. While other parts of the world were still struggling with speech and clothings, Egypt was becoming the most developed nation in the world producing the likes of Plato and Pythagoras.

These are some of the evidence that put Egypt ahead of the world:

Education

Knowledge was a resource only affordable for the rich. The Egyptians were so grounded in their studies that people from other nations sent their children to school here. In schools, teachers who also served as religious priests taught how students to read and write, and mathematics, religious studies, and morals. As they grew older, subjects such as medicine, geography, history, music,(humanity, ethics- the Instruction of Wisdom) were included in their courses after which they were allowed to choose their area of specialization.

Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Photo credit: talesalongtheway

Girls were not allowed into classes but were taught at home by their mothers. Some of what they were taught includes sewing, dancing, and baking. These girls grew up to have rights and even sign prenuptial agreements. If she worked outside the home, she was to receive equal pay as the man and if the workers were tired of a situation, they organised sit-in labour strikes.

The Egyptians are also behind the educational system adopted in some countries, that is, morning lessons-break-afternoon lessons.

Intellectual board games such as Senet and Dogs and Jackals was not a strange occurrence for this people.

Medicine

Although Hippocrates is often credited as the father of modern medicine, new findings reveal that the Egyptians had long been using performing surgery, amputations and curing diseases using pharmaceutical standards, 3,500 years before Hippocrates was born. Unsurprisingly, these prescriptions are still in use today. Imhotep (2667BC – 2648BC), the one credited with the design of the first step pyramid is the father of medicine and not Hippocrates as erroneously believed. Interestingly, what we know as Hippocrates Oath is actually the Oath of Imhotep.

Djoser Pyramid Designed By Imhotep. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Philosophy

Plato’s knowledge was largely influenced by the philosophy taught and held by these people. Plato, the Greek scholar, is said to be under the tutelage of Horite priest, Sechnuphis, for 13 years. The Egyptians recognised that an afterlife exists hence the need for a high moral standard or else face condemnation. According to them, when a man dies, the Ba (soul) leaves the body to be united to the Ka in the afterlife. If a man is condemned in the after-life, he faced a second death. This is why the Egyptian was desirous of living a holy life to become an “akh”. A part of this ideology was slightly infused in Plato’s work, the Allegory Of The Cave.

Beauty

The debate over whether the Egyptians had black or white skin tone is proof that the Egyptians were obsessed with their skincare routine. Glowing skin tone was a beauty practice for the rich and they were willing to pay excessively. Scientists discovered a Mummy suffering from Exogenous Ochronosis which is caused by excessive use of bleaching products.

Among their favourites were castor oil and milk (Cleopatra *who was originally Greek* had over 7,000 donkeys milked for her milk bath everyday).